a beautiful woman. life is pretty darn good for joel osteen, what if i lose my house, my car, as millions of americans are going through it. what do you say to that? how do you convince them to take your lead? >> well, i think a big part of the ministry, our hearts go out to people, it is so important, piers, if you get up in the morning and think life is lousy, i don't want to go to work. you will draw in more negative ty, you will sink down -- >> that is it for us tonight, it has been an extraordinary year, thank you for joining us.

a cap on itemized deductions for married couples making more than $300,000. a one year extension on unemployment insurance. an increase in the estate tax from 35% to 40% and a $5 million exemption. and the alternative minimum tax would be permanently adjusted for inflation. there are still some big items that the bill doesn't address. there is no mention of the debt ceiling.

the government $16.4 trillion borrowing limit which was reached yesterday and the bill kicks the can for about two months on the automatic spending cuts, the sequesters set to take effect tomorrow. joining me now is congressional correspondent dana bash. this just happened moments ago. tell us what happened and what are some of the more interesting votes. >> just moments ago we got the final vote. the final vote was 257 yes, 167 no. this happened with a majority of democrats supporting this and relatively healthy number of republicans but certainly most republicans voted against this. one of the republicans who did not vote against it was the leader of the republicans, the house speaker. he voted yes. it is significant for two runs. one it is the tradition for speakers not to take votes. they do it when they want to make a point symbolically and that is clearly what the house

speaker wanted to do here. he wanted to vote for a piece of legislation which he clearly knows is not perfect but is important when it comes to compromise and keeping tax cuts in place for 98% of americans. the other point is that paul ryan, the former vice presidential candidate and somebody who there is a lot of buzz about for 2016, he also voted yes, which is maybe a little bit surprising because other republicans who are being talked about as a presidential candidate the next time around, they have to run in the republican primary process and voting for anything that could be perceived as a tax increase is not what you want to do. it's noteworthy, paul ryan, the house budget chair, also voted yes for this. so it is the end of a long and trying day for house republicans, for everybody in the house and the next stop will be the president's desk. >> we were under the impress when it passed at 2:00 in the morning, it was going to go to the house, the house leadership,

republican leadership was in favor. then we got a clue early today from eric cantor that he didn't like the bill. he in the end did not vote in favor of it. he voted nay. >> correct. he voted no and another member of the leadership, kevin mccarthy, the whip, he also voted know. so they were split inside the leadership. i think the big issue today wasn't necessarily within the republican leadership. it wasn't so much as split there. it was a lot of concern and discontent among all of the rank and file republicans that they were put in a position where they had to vote for something. they had to look at it fast. they didn't love this compromise and the house republicans, as we know well, are not used to voting on something that they don't see as pure and so it took a little while as a republican source earlier said to me for them to wind themselves up this morning and then slowly to wind

themselves back down and accept reality, which is what we just saw. >> no one there owes themselves any congratulations. this took place 518 days after we first learned this fiscal cliff would take place. this was an embarrassing moment for america but the fiscal cliff has been averted. dana, excellent reporting. let's go to jessica yellin, who also has been standing by and watching this very carefully. i think because of what an embarrassing situation this has been, the president, jessica, has to be very careful as to how he plays this now. does he come out and make a speech? does he claim a victory? >> in fact, he will come out tonight, ali. the president will come out here in the press briefing room. we moved in here a little while ago suspecting that this might happen. in fact, the guys are coming out to put the presidential seal on the podium. he will speak at 11:20 eastern time. that's ten minutes from now.

and deliver a statement, i'm told, which when they give the guidance that way, it means don't expect him to answer your question when is you shout them at him but can you try. i just want to remind you that he first sat down with congressional negotiators on november 16th, just after he was reelected to first begin discussions to get a deal on avoiding the fiscal cliff and he began those discussions to have a grand bargain then. you remember it went into that process to negotiate it with speaker boehner and then you know hough it's unwound all this time. so this has been, as you point out, a months' long process and tonight i don't think he'll take a chest thumping victory lap but i do think that he will call it a victory. >> the president took some heat yesterday for comments that he made that some thought were inappropriate or the tone was inappropriate. he's got to watch tone at this point? >> yeah.

i mean, yes and no. he -- i don't expect him to adopt the same tone. he's speaking in front of reporters, he's not speaking in front of an audience of supporters and so the mood is different. and he will be probably if i had to guess, i was looking up some of his speeches from the campaign where he said, you know, the goal -- we will decide this issue during the campaign. i believe he'd say the tax cuts should be extended for middle class americans but the wealthiest must pay more and this issue will be decided by this election and that will be the end. and so he is -- i wouldn't be surprised if he sort of wrapped up that message tonight and said this was decided by the election and now it is resolved and it is right. so that's the tone he would take and he will probably pitch forward to the next fight which you've been talking about. >> there are several next fights coming up. we have the debt ceiling, the

sequester and at some point we might have a fight about a budget in this country. let's bring in our panel, john avalon, this has cost america, this has cost people in stock market performance last week, the s&p 500 was up more than 15% for the year. it closed the year 13.5% because of this uncertainty. people are going to -- we're going to have three more of these fights. this isn't a moment for anybody to be celebrating anything whatsoever. >> no. we've avoided a huge self-inflicted wound to the american economy. i suppose congress can give themselves a mild pat on the back for that. our strategics competitors around the world like china must have been watching around the world and laughing. this is not how -- we had 518 days to anticipate the sequester

cuts. at the end of the day this is a compromise on a tax portion. we're going to be all here again dealing with the issues of deficit and debt with that debt ceiling. this is kicking the can. it's a patch that should leave most folks on the center right. the fact the republicans have voted 2-1 against them speaks to the challenges to governing in the house. >> what's the explanation for that? this has now cost american real money. if republicans wanted to deal with this properly, why didn't we do it in the first 517 days? >> i think there was a lot of resistance from both side. you had nancy pelosi and chuck schumer calling for a million dollars threshold in 2011 because both party have a lot of fizziers in terms of affluent voters versus less affluent voters. the republicans are ideologically committed to entitlement reform but many of

their voters are very skeptical about entitlement reform the democrats, on the other hand, have a very effective message about tax fairness. whether or not that's a substantively idea is another matter. it resonates with our bases are whereas don't have a message on spending that resonates with their base. that's a big challenge for republicans going forward. >> the challenge for democrats now is that the tax conversation is off the table. now when republicans say, hey, we've got a deal with spending, we've got a spending problem, not a revenue problem. we've got the revenue situation worked out. now what do democrats do when republicans say what are you going to do about spenng? >> well week go back and talk about what the has already offered in spending cuts. he has never walked away from a grand bargain the way john boehner has done three times. i can bet you today, ali, republicans have kicking

themselves for not taking the deal that was on the table a year and a half ago where the president offered $3 in spending cuts for of dollar of revenue. they're not in the position for republicans to being demanding that now. democrats will make the tough decisions. president obama have said that. they understand that spending cuts do need to happen and reducing the debt and deficit is absolutely a priority for them as well as for their voters, but i think they're in a very strong position going into that to do it in a way that is fair, balanced, and in a way where the most vulnerable americans will be the ones that will be hurt the most. >> for those of you who just joined us, the house has passed the bill, the final tally is 257 in favor, 167 against. markets around the world are reacting to this. the major markets that are open

are australia and south korea. australia is up about 1.9%. south korea about 1.4%. that might be a harbinger about what they're going to see. they're tallying up and doing procedural stuff. we're waiting for president obama in about the next nine minutes or so to come out and make a statement. john, we're sort of nowhere further than we were and we have three major things in front of us. number one, we hit the debt ceiling on december 31st, which means they've got maybe a month before we have another debt ceiling debacle. the problem with the debt ceiling is it's not nearly as influential as this is but it could shut the government down. >> that's correct. as absurd as this sounds, the real difficult situation will come down the line. as you know, there's no rational

as you know, there's no rational reason to expect that this next congress is going to be any more competent or pro active than the last one. so rational experience would indicate we're in for a lot of ugliness in the months ahead. >> they're going to be a little bit more democratic. >> in the senate in particular. republicans -- when john boehner and they were negotiating in 2011, that's a deal many fiscal conservatives rationally wish they had taken at the time. >> dan a, tell us more about how this vote broke down. 257 yes, 167 no but party lines crossing on both of those votes. >> we now have the exact numbers and it really -- republicans

really did lose a majority a vast majority of their own. 151 republicans voted against, 85 only voted for. on the democratic side, this to me is also fascinating. 172 democrats, only 16 voted no. there are 70 members of the progressive caucus, those are the most liberal members, many of who i think were really unhappy with the the way this deal went down given the tax cut threshold went up from 250 to 450. it seems that the president did a pretty good job today when he gave his presentation to house democrats, convincing them that this is a good deal. deend of the day, this set the tone for the day. >> still to come, more on the fiscal cliff decision. president obama is set to speak on the outcome at about 20

after. we'll talk about who wins and who loses in this deal. you're watching "outfront."

[heart beating] [heartbeat continues] [heartbeat, music playing louder] ♪ i'm feeling better since you know me... ♪ announcer: this song was created with heartbeats of children in need. find out how it can help frontline health workers bring hope to millions of children at everybeatmatters.org.

breaking news, the president moments away from speaking about the fiscal cliff deal that has now passed the house of representatives, about to become law. let's go to the chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. what's going on at the white house? >> reporter: hi, ali. president obama is going to be out here in the briefing room to make a statement within the next five minutes. he's scheduled to speak. i expect that he will congratulate congress for getting this over the finish line and at least acknowledge -- tell americans that their taxes for the most part will not be going up.

and then pitch immediately forward to the next battles that washington will be facing and urge everybody in washington to tackle them in a more expeditious manner. i would like to tell you already senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, the chief republican in the senate who negotiated this final deal with the white house has already sent over a statement engaging the white house on this issue. they sent this one to the press saying -- looking ahead to the next battle. mcconnell says now it is time to get serious about reducing america's out of control spending. it's a debate the people want, the debate we'll have next and a debate the republicans are ready for. so the gauntlet has been thrown down. >> talk to me about the role that joe biden played here. he appeared to be brought in late in the game. i'm curious why for the first

517 games he wasn't brought in if he was so effective getting a deal done with mcconnell. >> usually these measures have to start in the house of representatives because they're tax-and-spending measures. you'd have to work with speaker boehner. the president was trying to work out this grand bargain with speaker boehner. but when they couldn't get it done and it collapsed, it pitched over to the senate. when it became clear it had to be a senate deal, mitch mcconnell has this historic relationship with the vice president because they worked in the senate for so many years together. they just know each other. it's not like they're great friends and they don't go around and vacation together but they know how to get deals done together. so when he needed what they call a dance partner, knew what they needed to horse trade and make it happen, that's who he turned to. he's just become an exceptional resource in the white house for getting deals done on capitol

hill. >> we've got an eye on that door as well. you're looking at the same thing to make sure if the president comes out, we're all going to stop talking. for the next three big things happening, the dealt ceiling, the sequester, which this bill pushes off for two months, the massive spending cuts and then for a budget, which we don't even really talk about these days but we actually have to have budgets done in this country, are we going to see a bigger role for joe biden in all of these things now? >> well, he was essential in the debt talks to begin with. so potentially yes and -- oh, he's here. >> all right. happy new year, everybody. >> happy new year. >> a central premise of my campaign for president was to change the tax code that was too skewed towards the wealthy at the expense of working, middle class americans. tonight we've done that thanks

to the votes of democrats and republicans in congress. i will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2% of americans while preventing a middle class tax hike that could have sent the economy back into recession and obviously had a severe impact on families all across america. i want to thank all the leaders of the house and senate. in particular i want to thank the work that was done by my extraordinary vice president, joe biden, as well as leader harry reid, speaker boehner, nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell. everyone worked really hard and once again, joe, i want to thank you for your great work. under this law more than 98 % of americans and 97% of small businesses will not see their income taxes go up. millions of families will continue to receive tax credits to help raise their kids and send them to college. companies will continue to receive tax credits for the

research they do, the investments they make and the clean energy jobs they create. and 2 million americans who are out of work but out there looking pounding the pavement every day are going to continue to receive unemployment benefits as long as they're actively looking for a job. but i think we all recognize this law is just one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy and broaden opportunity for everybody. the fact is the deficit is still too high. and we're still investing too little in the things that we need for the economy to grow as fast as it should. and that's why speaker boehner and i originally tried to negotiate a larger agreement that would put this country on a path that paying down its debt while also putting americans back to work, rebuilding our roads and bridges and providing investments in areas like education and job training. unfortunately there just wasn't

enough support or time for that kind of large agreement in a lame duck session of congress. and that failure comes with a cost, as the messy nature of the process over the past several weeks has made business more uncertain and consumers less confident. but we are continuing to chip away at this problem step by step. last year i signed into law $1.7 trillion in deficit reduction. tonight's agreement further reduces the deficit by raising $620 billion in revenue from the wealthiest households in america and there will be more deficit reduction as congress decides what to do about the automatic spending cuts that we have now delayed for two months. as i've demonstrated throughout the past several weeks, i am very open to compromise. i agree with democrats and republicans that the aging population and the rising cost of health care makes medicare

the biggest contributor to our deficit. i believe we've got to find ways to reform that program without hurting seniors, who couldn't on it to survive. and i believe there's further unnecessary spending in government that we can eliminate. but we can't simply cut our way to prosperity. cutting spending has to go hand in hand with further reforms to our tax code so that the wealthiest corporations and individual can take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren't available to most americans and we can't keep cutting things like basic research and new technology and still expect to succeed in the 21st century economy. so we're going to have to continue to move forward in deficit reduction but we have to do it in a balanced way, making sure that we are growing, even as we get a handle on our spending. now, one last point i want to make.

while i will negotiate over many things, i will not have another debate with this congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they've already racked up through the laws that they passed. let me repeat. we can't not pay bills that we've already incurred. if congress refuses to give the united states government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic, far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff. people will remember back in 2011 the last time this course of action was threatened, our entire recovery was put at risk. consumer confidence plunged, business investment plunged, growth dropped. we can't go down that path again. and today's agreement enshrines, i think, a principle into law that will remain in place as long as i am president. the deficit needs to be reduced

in way that's balanced. everyone pays their fair share. everyone does their part. that's how our economy works best. that's hough we grow. the sum total of all the budget agreements we've reached so far proves that there is a path forward that, it is possible if we focus not on our politics but what's -- but on what's right for the country. and the one thing that i think hopefully in the new year we'll focus on is seeing if we can put a package like this together with a little bit less drama, a little bit less brinksmanship, not scare the heck out of folks quite as much. we can come together as democrats and republicans to cut spending and raise revenue in a way that reduces our deficit, protects the middle class and provides ladders into the middle class for everybody who is willing to work hard. we can set this will debate or at the very least into the allow

it to be so all consuming all the time that it stops us from meeting a host of other challenges that we face, creating jobs, boosting incomes, fixing our infrastructure, fixing our immigration system, protecting our planet from the harmful effects of climate change, boosting domestic energy production, protecting our kids from the horrors of gun violence. it's not just possible to do these things, it's an obligation to ourselves and to future generations, and i look forward to working with every single member of congress to meet this obligation in the new year. and i hope that everybody now gets at least a day off, i guess, or a few days off so that people can refresh themselves because we're going to have a lot of work to do in 2013. >> there you have it. president obama and jay carney

and the vice president leaving the briefing room there where he just said he is not going to get -- this is interesting. let me bring our political panel, we'll have the conversation with them. maria, the president saying i'm not getting into a fight with congress about paying for the bills that we've already run up. that's is a direct reference to the debt ceiling that was hit yesterday. he's saying he's not going to have a debate. here's my problem with that. he shouldn't have to. the debt ceiling is a stupid technical thing that only exists in america and the law really has to be changed. it's as simple as that. people think this is very simplistic, you should have a credit card limit. in other countries, you pay for a law as you make that law. it's a silly thing. but for the president to say he's not going to have a debate about it, he is going to have a debate about it. apparently we debate about everything. >> if the president says it's a certain day, republicans are

sure to say that it's not that day. look, yes, there will be a debate. i think what he was talking about, though, ali is we're not going to get to the brinksmanship and i think he hopes and all americans hope we don't get to the point where we were the last time we had the silly debate on the debt where our country was downgraded and we did look foolish in the eyes of the world. you know, the market was down and it just certainly was not good for our economy. and i think those are the points that the president was making. we don't need to get there. now, in terms of having a debate on the broader issues, for example, if they start now the way that he has asked in terms of having a discussion about reform, about tax reform, about spending cuts and doing it in a responsible way that doesn't hurt our growth and doesn't hurt our economy or job creation, then he is absolutely willing and democrats are and clearly republicans want this, too, to have that kind of conversation.

but i think what he is saying he is not going to do is to let republicans, the way that they tried to do last time, hold the debt limit talk hostage to what it is that they're going to be asking for in these broader debates. >> for those of us just joining us, let's me bring you up to speed on what's going on. the president just spoke about the fiscal cliff deal that was just passed within the last hour by the house of representatives. history today on the floor of the the house, a vote in favor of a deal to avert the fiscal cliff, after a very, very long day of will they or won't they? late tonight house leadership finally decided to bring the bill to the floor for what is a so-called up-or-down vote. either you vote for it or against it. it passed largely on partisan lines. but far more democrats voting in favor than republicans. only 85 republicans voted in favor of the bill. one man responsible for wrangling republican votes in

the house is the deputy whip, congressman tom cole. i don't know if you'll appreciate it if i say congratulations to you. >> it's been a difficult few weeks the house worked its will tonight. i'm pleased to make 85% of the bush tax cuts permanent for 98% of the american people, to get rid of the alternative minimum tax once and for all. there's a lot of good things in this bill and the president is going to have to be a lot more for the coming than he has been on spending cuts and entitlement reform going forward. we'll have that opportunity when we deal with sequestration and when the debt ceiling comes up again. >> you're a member of the house leadership. you're all important, all members of congress but you're a member of the leadership. how will you do things differently going forward with the debt ceiling debate, the

sequester debate? >> i disagree with some of your earlier callers. we didn't have a downgrade because of the debt ceiling debate. we had it because we weren't dealing with our deficit. >> that's not entirely true -- >> that is entirely true -- >> it is actually isn't. i enjoy talking to you but it's not true. >> you can't have trillion dollar -- >> give me five minutes and i'll pull out s&p reports. i don't know as much about congress as you do but i do know about this. >> i can assure you when you're spending that much more than you're taking in, that's the cause of the problem and we have no creditable plan. the president, have i a lot of respect for him pip worked with him on this and worked with him tonight and i'm proud to do so. when you get a vote up here, when you have a democratic senate that can't produce a budget in three years.

>> listen, i don't think the president is blameless and i don't think democrats are blameless but you have a specific job, just like the president has a specific job. you are a member of the republican leadership. most people if you landed from mars ten days ago and looked at this, your general take away with be these republicans in the house don't know how to get it together, they have lack of discipline, doesn't have a consistent message, they leave things to the last moment. how do republicans in the mouse get it together? >> i don't think we do leave things to the last minute. we dealt with the sequester and tax cuts in may. the senate didn't ever pick them up and deal with those things and offer a counterproposal. quite frankly the president talks a good game about entitlement reform and deficit reduction, we just haven't seen it in four years. he's the one that appointed bowles-simpson and didn't endorse any of its recommendations.

>> as i recall there was a key member of the republican conference who voted against it. do you recall who i'm talking about? >> sure, i certainly do. >> it was paul ryan, the man who ran for vice president of the united states. he voted against bowles-simpson. >> look, it's the president's commission. >> you can't blame the president for everything. does paul ryan not take responsibility for that? >> paul ryan voted with us tonight. so i think paul ryan has made extraordinary contributions, but we have to have a plan from the president that gets democratic votes. again, this is a budget that he's presented -- >> what about -- >> a couple of years with no democratic votes. how can that be a serious plan? >> totally with you. i said this an hour ago, the one thing the government has a responsibility to do is come up with a budget. eric cantor voted against this bill. you have a discipline problem in the republican house caucus.

>> we let the house -- look, this was an unusual circumstance. i disagree with a lot of my friends. i look at something that makes 85% of the bush tax cuts permanent for 98% of the american people as a big win. frankly, when taxes were going to go up on everybody, to not protect 98% of the people when you had an opportunity to me is short sighted. if we don't pass this tonight, you're looking at a $4 trillion tax increase and you're looking at financial chaos. you're also looking at a gutted military. i think this was the right step tonight. but we're going to have to have a lot more in terms of democratic participation in dealing with entitlements. hopefully that will come. >> you said something very interesting several weeks ago when you first suggested why don't weep get this out of the way, this tax debate because it's sucking out all the air out of the room and then you take away the cover republicans have to discuss -- >> the democrats have. >> i'm sorry, your quote, you're right. i'm quoting you. that's an interesting idea.

do you feel we're making progress here? now that we've taken that off the table and you can force the democrats? >> i do. look, i'm not saying all revenue questions have been settled for all time but most have been settled for the immediate future tonight. so now it's a matter of spending cut and entitlement reforms. we need to see those on the table. i also said, look, there's an area the president can lead in and this entitlement then only -- entitlement reform is where the money is at. it lab lot of tougher votes ahead of us if we're really going to deal with the fiscal problem. >> thank up for your contribution to getting this done. tom kole of oklahoma. look forward to speaking to you on the other matters. let's go to jessica yellin at the white house. what's going on over there?

>> i can hear the helicopter landing on the lawn. the latest news is the president is taking off to get on air force i. he broke off his vacation here to get this done. the president, you heard him address his accomplishments, what he thinks were the single achievements in this legislation and then you were talking to the panel there a little bit about how it could be he could possibly avoid having a fight over the debt ceiling. i would venture to say that it's possible what he's signaling. perhaps he's willing to let the nation default, that he could allow that to happen. we should keep in mind the republicans are the party that has more business, ceos and in

their corner as donors, sponsors and backers. and perhaps would get even more pressure from that community were republicans to try to lean in that direction and perhaps that is what the president is trying to signal by saying repeatedly he is prepared to let them walk the plank and will not have that fight. >> he didn't fudge on that. he said "i won't have another debate with congress on whether they should pay the bills." >> he's given a few speeches on this that have been even more elaborated further and has been quite clear that this is not a fight he's willing to have. so i think he has something in mind when it comes to this issue. >> you look back to the election, look how the president has played this since then. what's your initial evaluation of how they've handled this? >> i think that there is a -- they didn't get everything they

could have gotten and the president once again wasn't able to close the deal. this is not his greatest skill, negotiating. it's quite evident. he's lucky to have biden in the white house and such a skilled negotiators, somebody who has a great relationship on the hill. he did get what he needed, he did get some of the other items. but once again, he is a democratic president having a discussion about debt, deficits, these are issues that are paramount to the republican party and but he's having it on republican language or an interesting road for him to navigate for the next four years, ali. >> jessica, thank you for your coverage on this story. >> as you know, this battle didn't end with tonight's votes. we'll tell you a little bit more about it when we come back. you're watching "outfront."

congressman charlie rangel is on the floor of the house of representatives right now. you'd think the whole place would be shut down and everybody would be going home. there are in fact some issues going on, particularly with members of the new york delegation to the house of representatives. let's go to our senior congressional correspondent dana bash. rangel just left the podium. what's going on with new york? >> reporter: it appears that the

house is going to leave without passing the $60 billion in assistance that the senate passed for victims of hurricane sandy. that's why you're seeing -- there you see republican from pennsylvania, likely his district was hit, but mostly new york and new jersey members, republicans and democrats going one after the other to the house floor really angry about this. doesn't necessarily mean they ultimately won't get the federal dollars but what it does mean is on thursday a new congress is sworn in. so the whole process of having to get this money through the system, through the senate and the house will have to start all over again. this appears to be a pretty direct casualty of this fiscal cliff deal. the reason is because we've been talking all night about republicans being angry about not enough spending cuts. this would have been $60 billion in new spending without any offsets. of course it would be emergency spending but new spending that republicans clearly could not stomach passing.

this information comes from the appropriations chairman hal rogers to our dierdre walsh. the republican governor from new jersey was here and other republicans from that area really pressing members of congress saying we need this money because, as you well know, you're up in new york, so many people are in dire straits after that had your canadian. >> that's an unusual casualty of not getting that money because congress is tired of giving money. when we come back, an update on hillary clinton.

a potentially dangerous blood clot has forced secretary of state hillary clinton to spend another night in a new york city hospital. tonight doctors are treating her with blood thinners. the clot was found during a follow-up mri after the secretary of state suffered a concussion last month. doctors say the clot is located between the brain and the skull behind mrs. clinton's right ear. dr. david deaton is the chief of vascular surgery at georgetown hospital. this situation that she is in right now doctors are describing as fully curable. >> yes, i think that's right, ali. she has a clot as described in the transverse signus behind her right ear. this is similar to other clots in the venus system treated with

anti-coagulants offered referred to as blood thinners and should resolve spontaneously on that therapy. >> it is unusual it taking this long to treat it, going on the third night in the hospital? >> usually it's related to regulating the medicine. the clot will resolve over many more days. it takes weeks. often anti-coagulant therapy is given for three to six months and often life long. >> heparin, coumadin, those are the names we're talking about? >> yes, those are the two most common. >> they say there's no stroke as a result of this, but this is the kind of thing that can cause a stroke? >> in some cases it is associated with stroke but all the information we have now is that she had a scan and this was discovered on an imaging study and she didn't have any clinical

symptoms. in a large number of cases, as with blood clots in the veins and other parts of the body, it's not associated with anything other than the finding of the clot on an imaging study. >> so for the rest of us, how do we know we're not walking around with something like this? >> well, as you might imagine, sometimes we do have undiscovered medical conditions and it's basically clinical symptomatology that leads us to investigate these problems. if it's so small as to not cause any clinical symptoms, these things the body resolves on its own without our ever knowing about it. >> one last thing. how long do you think her recovery period is? she's a busy woman. i know she's coming to the end of her tenure but she keeps pretty busy. is she going to have to keep off that kind of a schedule? >> i think that will be dictated by her concussion rather than the blood clot. the blood clot in and of itself doesn't restrict her activity in any way as long as her medication is dosed

appropriately and under control. >> thank you for your help and helping our viewers understand this. >> showing you pictures, that's marine i carrying president obama to andrews air force base. he's scheduled to take off on air force i to honolulu, hawaii to join his family. he interrupted his vacation to return to deal with the fiscal cliff. the president didn't waste any time. after that house vote took place, he and joe biden made a statement and he is on his way to hawaii. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] break the grip of back or arthritis pain

with odor free aspercreme. powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. so all you notice is relief. aspercreme. an historic night in america. the fiscal cliff has been averted by a vote in the house of representatives of 257-167. that's it for us. "piers morgan tonight" is next.